It’s all about the noise for Maticrust

The UAE-based, Filipino five-piece are responsible for throat-shredding, ear-splitting grindcore with an anarchic spirit.

Members of the UAE-based Filipino six-piece grindcore band Maticrust, from left, Vincent, Paul, Don-Don, Erickson, Dennis and Kris at a rehearsal in Abu Dhabi. Ravindranath K / The National
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If you still have all your senses intact after seeing Maticrust play live you’re doing something wrong. The UAE-based Filipino six-piece specialises in grindcore with an anarchic spirit, as anyone who was at the Resurrection Festival metal night at Dubai’s Music Room last month can confirm. Erickson, one of the band’s two vocalists, explains what’s behind all that noise.

What does Maticrust mean?

Our band’s name, Maticrust, came from our native Tagalog word “matikas”, which means strong and durable. “Crust” is based on our influences of anarcho-crust punk and noise music. We believe in a DIY attitude. All Maticrust members are young, Pinoy expats living with their families in Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. We are all originally from the Philippine Islands, which are always visited by the alphabet typhoons.

What’s the UAE scene like?

It’s growing. Lots of new bands are coming out, gigs are regularly happening every Friday, organised by different active collective groups and hard-working individuals. The music scene is comprised of different music genres, from death metal, thrash metal, black metal and progressive metal to pop punk, punk rock, alternative rock and the rest. Now organisers and attendees are appreciating grindcore, crust punk and noise.

How was the Resurrection Fest?

Full-blast mayhem. Two of our members were not around due to an emergency but still we managed to put on our best grinding gig ever. Our set went well even though we were only three – we still didn’t fail to produce our grind-noise attack to our fellow comrades.

What’s your relation to scenes such as punk and grindcore?

We’ve been part of the crust, punk and grindcore scene since we got involved in DIY anarcho-punk and hardcore punk in our early teens – the 1990s, to be specific.

How did the band get together?

It started in 2011, when Dennis and Don-Don started to jam, and they contacted me as all three of us played together during our teenage years in the punk scene in Manila, in the Philippines, and found a bassist. We played two gigs in a row that time, and then after a few months – due to some tight working schedules as most bands here in the UAE are experiencing – our band rested for a while. Later on, Dennis and Don-Don decided to reform the band and met Paul and Vincent – who were also both involved in the punk scene in the southern part of the Philippines – at one of the gigs in Abu Dhabi. They started to exchange their ideas and musical influences and jam together. Then – boom! – Maticrust was back from the grind horizon.

And now you have a new ­guitarist, Kris.

Kris just joined recently. He is currently playing with Tartarus, a black-metal band in Dubai, which is inactive nowadays due to some members’ hectic schedules. We’ve been seeing Kris a lot at Dubai metal gigs. We asked him to join this year when we were invited to the ­Resurrection Fest, but unfortunately he did not have the chance to play with us due to some document-­approval issues. He adds more grind to the core mayhem riffs, with a blend of chaotic onslaught tunes in the type of music we’re playing with.

What are you working on right now?

We will write more noise songs this year, play more shows, ­release our full-length album and hopefully go on a Middle Eastern or Asian tour playing with our favourite bands.

Have you ever encountered hostility because of your music and ideas?

We are very open-minded ­human beings when it comes to feedback and criticism, but we haven’t received any ­negative feedback. We are socio­politically motivated individuals inclined to respect other ­ideologies, philosophies and interests.

You’ve released tracks and records in Japan and the United States.

Yes, we have contributed five songs to the Slave to the Grindcore: World Wide Grindcore Compilation in Japan by Wideblaster Records, and our first demo was released by Placenta Recordings in the US.

What’s the easiest way for people to hear your music here?

You can check us out on YouTube, SoundCloud, Facebook and at reverbnation.com/maticrust. We have our own DIY distro [distributor] in Dubai as well as our local distro counterparts in our homeland. For those who are interested to hear our music, trade their stuff or buy our demo and other releases, please do not hesitate to contact us via our Facebook page.

What have been some of the other highs and lows of the band’s career?

We are not a career-orientated band. We just want to play for noise and fun, share our music and views with those people who believe in us, so there will be no “ups and downs” scenario. We’ve been in touch with different cool people, organisers, labels who are interested in our music and ideas. We are now in the process of finalising our full-length album composed of 12 original tracks and, hopefully, we can finish it before this year ends.

artslife@thenational.ae